Stamkos can't go to Sochi because broken leg hasn't fully healed, but his teammate St. Louis will go in his place

TAMPA--Marty St. Louis smiled a thin smile, and noted he'd never spoken in a formal news conference setting before after years and years of scrums in dressing rooms.

"This feels like I'm retiring," he quipped.

No, not even close. After the embarrassment and bitter disappointment of being left off the Canadian Olympic team last month, this was a triumphant moment for St. Louis as the stunning news that his injured teammate Steven Stamkos wouldn't be going to Sochi 24 hours earlier was surpassed by the latest chapter in what has been an incredible hockey story for the 38-year-old St. Louis.

"I feel terrible for (Stamkos) that he's in that situation," said St. Louis, who actually learned he was Olympics-bound on Wednesday. "But I think if you'd asked him who he'd want to replace him if he couldn't go, he would have said me.

"And I'll do the best I can."

St. Louis, 15 years older than Stamkos, was never drafted by an NHL team, and was cut loose by Calgary 14 years ago and then passed over in the 2000 expansion draft before signing with the Bolts as a free agent. Since then, the 5-foot-8 winger has gone to six all-star games, won three Lady Byng trophies, captured two scoring titles and won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 2004.

"I feel my whole career, how I came into this league, it was kind of a backdoor entrance, (and) this is kind of the same way," he said of being asked to replace Stamkos.

"However you get there, people don't care. You're just there."

St. Louis admitted he was "bitter" over not being on the initial list of Team Canada players. This time, he was chosen over the likes of Claude Giroux and James Neal, thus sparing Team Canada executive director Steve Yzerman, also St. Louis' boss with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the uncomfortable possibility of passing over his team captain for a third time.

St. Louis played in the 2006 Turin Olympics and left without a medal, but didn't make the 2010 team that went on to win gold in Vancouver.

He said he never considered refusing to go if he received a last minute invitation.

"As upset as you can be sometimes, it's hard to turn down this opportunity," he said. "You've got to realize you only get a few kicks at the can, and you've got to put the emotion aside and realize the opportunity.

"I'm better prepared for this opportunity."

He said the best part will be that his three sons will get to see him play in Sochi.

"I'm happy as a dad to have my kids see that," said St. Louis, who had planned to go on a short vacation with his family.

While St. Louis heads to Russia, Stamkos will stay behind in Tampa and try to be ready to play for the Lightning as soon as the Olympic break is over. His coach, Jon Cooper, said he hoped the high-scoring winger would go sit on a beach and "sip Mai-Tais," but Stamkos rejected that idea.

"This gives me a chance not to miss any more games," said Stamkos. "I want to keep progressing. If I take a week off now, that's not going to help my leg. We want to keep pushing."

Stamkos has missed 39 games since breaking his tibia on Remembrance Day, and fully expected to be cleared by doctors on Wednesday to play against the Maple Leafs tonight.

Instead, a CT scan showed the bone had not yet fully healed. Stamkos said the healing is still "on track," but he was ruled out of both an immediate return to NHL action and being a participant in the Olympics.

"It was a little shocking," he said. "In anything, I wish it had been done a little earlier so I wouldn't have had my hopes as high as I did.

"I don't think you can really put into words the feelings I've gone through the last 24 hours. I can honestly sit here and say I did everything possible to give myself a chance."

Stamkos, who said it had been his childhood dream to play in the Olympics, was elated that St. Louis was chosen to go in his place.

"He probably deserved to be on the team in the first place," he said. "We would have loved to go there together. I don't see this as Marty replacing me. I see this as Marty deserving a place on the team and hopefully bringing back a gold medal.

"I personally think he's going to go and play a big role."

Despite the absence of Stamkos, the Lightning still sit third in the Eastern Conference. Cooper said when Stamkos was injured he expected he would miss 41 games, right up until the Olympic break.

"Unfortunately for him, that's turned out to be true," said Cooper. "He understands this is a big blow to a dream of his, but he's not letting that get in the way of his coming back to play for us this year.

"This is not a setback. He's ahead of schedule. It's healing. We don't want to put him at risk.There's examples in multitudes of sports about guys who have come back too early and re-injured themselves. That's the last thing we want to do with a kid who's 23 years old.

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